It has survived for more than 130 years and was bombed in the Blitz but now
the capital’s oldest working fish smokehouse is now under threat after a
single resident complained about the smell.

London’s apparently unstoppable property development may be about to achieve what the Luftwaffe failed to do and stop kippers being produced at the Victorian premises in Crouch End, now owned by a firm of fishmongers, Walter Purkis and Sons.

The Purkis family believe a complaint from a single resident in a nearby flat block about the smell from the smokehouse chimney led to council action that resulted in it being shut down.

Rising property prices in London have fuelled rampant property development in the once down-at-heel area and the flats were built above a supermarket near the shop six years ago.

John Purkis, who runs the business, said the residents had now erected a wooden studio type building next to the chimney.

One had apparently complained to officials at Labour-run Haringey council in north London, which ordered it to close, threatening the owners that they would be fined if caught using it.

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Mr Purkis said of the residents of the flats: “They have lived there for six years. We have been there 130 years.” He said property developers were now building in “every sort of space they are finding”.

The owners were told that the smokehouse was in breach of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 and the Clean Air Act 1993.

John’s father Walter Purkis, whose family have been in the fish trade for generations, bought the Crouch End shop in 1982 from previous owners the Green family, who had built the smokehouse behind the shop in 1880.

He said: “It has always been a fish shop. Even when the bomb dropped and knocked the chimney over, it was back on and working in two days.”

Mr Purkis said a health inspector who visited in September had given it a five-star rating and admired the smokehouse, saying “there’s not many of them left”.

But unbeknown to the owners the local authority had begun monitoring the premises in November since it received a complaint about the smell and the smoke.

The Purkis family, who also run a fish shop in Muswell Hill, were able to complete their Christmas orders but say they have lost 40% of their turnover, which came from smoked fish.

David Winskill, a Liberal Democrat councillor, said he was backing the owners’ fight to fire up the smokehouse again, and said he would work with council officers to try to achieve a “speedy resolution”.

A council spokesman said advice on appropriate smoking appliances and approved fuels had been given to the owner.

He said: “We are working closely with them to resolve the issue. Until then the owner has been asked not to use the smokehouse.”